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Politics : Liberalism: Do You Agree We've Had Enough of It? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (86986)	7/2/2010 10:24:11 AM
From: chartseer	2 Recommendations Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 224756

oh bummer! Too bad it isn't even keeping up with the growth in the labor market. Nice try though. Keep drinking the kool-aid maybe if you yourself consume enough you can get the kool-aid sales up. How can you side with those chicago politicians in the white house? Do you actually think they those chicago politicians in the white house have your interest at heart? Don't you know anything about chicago politics and chicago politicians. Still waiting for your opinion of what the new stock market downtrend says about those chicago politicians in the white house and their inability to solve the nation's problems. Don't worry! Be happy! the stupid hopeless comrade chartseer in the new era of the inability of those chicago politicians in the white to solve the nation's problems

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (86986)	7/2/2010 10:45:03 AM
From: chartseer	Respond to of 224756

oh bummer! Private sector hiring increased 125,000 while the labor force increases on average 150,000 per month. So there are now on average 30,000 more people looking for employment. I was really surprised you didn't mention that the percentage of unemployed decreased to 9.5 % from 9.6 %. Don't worry! Be happy! the stupid hopeless comrade chartseer in the new era of those inept chicago politicians in the white house

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (86986)	7/2/2010 11:05:03 AM
From: longnshort	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 224756

How the AMA Sold Out Doctors, Patients for Obamacare by Nadia Naffe During the healthcare debate conservatives spent months trying to figure out why the leadership of the American Medical Association signed the nation’s doctors up in support of Obamacare. obamacare The AMA endorsed Obamacare when member physicians were fiercely opposed. The groups early support was one factor that contributed to the bill’s passage, contrary to the expressed will of the majority of member physicians. The answer lies in the AMA’s revenue stream. The AMA has been a puppet of the government since the early 1990’s in order to protect their multi-million dollar monopoly on the CPT coding system that all doctors have to use to bill Medicare and insurance companies, the licensing of which provides the AMA over 70 percent of its income. The AMA earns only a fraction of its revenue from dues it receives from doctors, representing only 17 percent of doctors nationwide, according to their website. The lion’s share of AMA’s revenue, about $118M, comes from the sale of copyright publishing of billing codes for medical procedures and services. How the AMA made medical code writing a multimillion dollar business Before CPT Codes existed and when ICD-9-CM codes were just being developed, doctors had to write out in words what symptoms a patient had, what the diagnosis most likely was, and what visits, services, and procedures they thought they should get paid for. Then in 1966 Current Procedural Terminology or CPT was designed by the AMA to assist doctors in billing Medicare and health providers using codes. Doctors use the CPT Codes to specify to health care providers the service rendered so that they can get paid. Headquartered in Chicago (Obama’s hometown, no citation needed), the AMA also controls the CPT Editorial Panel and CPT Advisory Committee, along with the staff which is responsible for editing, adding, and deleting CPT Codes. Until now, doctors had rarely been politically active (unlike lawyers); their tendency was to back away, knowing they could do little as individuals. For years the membership ranks of the AMA have dwindled, but when the AMA betrayed the very people it was ostensibly meant to represent, doctors began organizing on their own. “No one came to the forefront of the medical debate for the good of the doctor-patient relationship,” said Dr. Joe Whitaker, who founded the United States Medical Association to repeal Obamacare. “Government run healthcare is impossible to afford and impossible to implement.” The AMA endorsed Obamacare as a way to protect its medical coding monopoly with the federal government, in-turn, the Obama Administration recieved the medical communities support for socialized healthcare – that was the deal. “Dollars are driving the entire process,” said Dr. Whitaker. “Doctors and patients want a national voice different from the AMA that is not controlled by the educational elite.” Now, we know why doctors were standing behind the President in lab coats during the healthcare PR events at the White House.

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (86986)	7/2/2010 11:14:01 AM
From: longnshort	Respond to of 224756

Six Months to Go Until The Largest Tax Hikes in History From Ryan Ellis on Thursday, July 1, 2010 4:15 PM Add to Reddit Add to Stumbleupon Add to Delicious Add to Digg Add to Facebook Add to Twitter In just six months, the largest tax hikes in the history of America will take effect. They will hit families and small businesses in three great waves on January 1, 2011: First Wave: Expiration of 2001 and 2003 Tax Relief In 2001 and 2003, the GOP Congress enacted several tax cuts for investors, small business owners, and families. These will all expire on January 1, 2011: Personal income tax rates will rise. The top income tax rate will rise from 35 to 39.6 percent (this is also the rate at which two-thirds of small business profits are taxed). The lowest rate will rise from 10 to 15 percent. All the rates in between will also rise. Itemized deductions and personal exemptions will again phase out, which has the same mathematical effect as higher marginal tax rates. The full list of marginal rate hikes is below: - The 10% bracket rises to an expanded 15% - The 25% bracket rises to 28% - The 28% bracket rises to 31% - The 33% bracket rises to 36% - The 35% bracket rises to 39.6% Higher taxes on marriage and family. The “marriage penalty” (narrower tax brackets for married couples) will return from the first dollar of income. The child tax credit will be cut in half from $1000 to $500 per child. The standard deduction will no longer be doubled for married couples relative to the single level. The dependent care and adoption tax credits will be cut. The return of the Death Tax. This year, there is no death tax. For those dying on or after January 1 2011, there is a 55 percent top death tax rate on estates over $1 million. A person leaving behind two homes and a retirement account could easily pass along a death tax bill to their loved ones. Higher tax rates on savers and investors. The capital gains tax will rise from 15 percent this year to 20 percent in 2011. The dividends tax will rise from 15 percent this year to 39.6 percent in 2011. These rates will rise another 3.8 percent in 2013. Second Wave: Obamacare There are over twenty new or higher taxes in Obamacare. Several will first go into effect on January 1, 2011. They include: The “Medicine Cabinet Tax” Thanks to Obamacare, Americans will no longer be able to use health savings account (HSA), flexible spending account (FSA), or health reimbursement (HRA) pre-tax dollars to purchase non-prescription, over-the-counter medicines (except insulin). The “Special Needs Kids Tax” This provision of Obamacare imposes a cap on flexible spending accounts (FSAs) of $2500 (Currently, there is no federal government limit). There is one group of FSA owners for whom this new cap will be particularly cruel and onerous: parents of special needs children. There are thousands of families with special needs children in the United States, and many of them use FSAs to pay for special needs education. Tuition rates at one leading school that teaches special needs children in Washington, D.C. (National Child Research Center) can easily exceed $14,000 per year. Under tax rules, FSA dollars can be used to pay for this type of special needs education. The HSA Withdrawal Tax Hike. This provision of Obamacare increases the additional tax on non-medical early withdrawals from an HSA from 10 to 20 percent, disadvantaging them relative to IRAs and other tax-advantaged accounts, which remain at 10 percent. Third Wave: The Alternative Minimum Tax and Employer Tax Hikes When Americans prepare to file their tax returns in January of 2011, they’ll be in for a nasty surprise—the AMT won’t be held harmless, and many tax relief provisions will have expired. The major items include: The AMT will ensnare over 28 million families, up from 4 million last year. According to the left-leaning Tax Policy Center, Congress’ failure to index the AMT will lead to an explosion of AMT taxpaying families—rising from 4 million last year to 28.5 million. These families will have to calculate their tax burdens twice, and pay taxes at the higher level. The AMT was created in 1969 to ensnare a handful of taxpayers. Small business expensing will be slashed and 50% expensing will disappear. Small businesses can normally expense (rather than slowly-deduct, or “depreciate”) equipment purchases up to $250,000. This will be cut all the way down to $25,000. Larger businesses can expense half of their purchases of equipment. In January of 2011, all of it will have to be “depreciated.” Taxes will be raised on all types of businesses. There are literally scores of tax hikes on business that will take place. The biggest is the loss of the “research and experimentation tax credit,” but there are many, many others. Combining high marginal tax rates with the loss of this tax relief will cost jobs. Tax Benefits for Education and Teaching Reduced. The deduction for tuition and fees will not be available. Tax credits for education will be limited. Teachers will no longer be able to deduct classroom expenses. Coverdell Education Savings Accounts will be cut. Employer-provided educational assistance is curtailed. The student loan interest deduction will be disallowed for hundreds of thousands of families. Charitable Contributions from IRAs no longer allowed. Under current law, a retired person with an IRA can contribute up to $100,000 per year directly to a charity from their IRA. This contribution also counts toward an annual “required minimum distribution.” This ability will no longer be there. PDF Version Permalink \| Email \| Print \| Tags: TAXES Read more: atr.org